Medical Advice

December 2, 1997 | ROBERT SCHEER, Robert Scheer is a Times contributing editor. E-mail: rscheer@aol.com

Now that the McCaughey septuplets are out of imminent danger, it's possible to raise some impolite questions. First off, what's God got to do with it? Everyone from the parents to the doctors keeps talking about this being God's will, as if the Almighty compelled Bobbi McCaughey to become a guinea pig for modern science.

Carol Holt of Pittsburgh had been experiencing tingling and numbness in her right hand for about a year and a half. When the symptoms of a twitching and unmistakable tremor appeared, her family physician and a neurologist could find no cause. So she and her husband, Ken, went to their computer for answers. Frustrated by the lack of a diagnosis, Ken Holt, a software developer, pored over the Mayo Clinic Family Health CD-ROM.

In today's rapidly changing and overwhelming potpourri of health news, where do you turn for good coverage? One place is consumer health magazines. They're not JAMA or the New England Journal of Medicine--and don't expect New Yorker-quality writing. Still, they are great ways to get an overview of up-to-date health news. Here are our top eight picks. Health Number of issues a year: 7 Established: 1987 Circulation: 900,000 Cover price: $2.

The respected head of the trauma unit of Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, which frequently treats injured illegal immigrants, is making some sense about those controversial U.S. Border Patrol chases in the neighborhood of the San Onofre border checkpoint. After three illegal immigrants were delivered to his doorstep by ambulance over the weekend--with injuries sustained from falling on rocks near the checkpoint--Dr.

This, it seems, is the Phone Age. If you want to hear from Hulk Hogan and take the Hulkster's wrestling challenge, dial up 1-900-454-HULK. Lonely and want to listen to a throaty woman named Bev? Call 1-900-BEV-XXXX. But if you have a bellyache or a bad rash at 2:30 in the morning, would you call a Dial-a-Doc? Plenty have; they've reached out and touched real-life, licensed practicing physicians on call 24 hours a day. The first such service, Doctors By Phone, has been on line for nearly a year.

This week's strong show of congressional intent should send a unmistakable message to President Bush: To enforce the so-called "gag rule" on abortion counseling would go against the advice of medical professionals and the will of most Americans. The Senate Thursday joined the House in approving a bill that would prevent enforcement of an Administration-backed ban on abortion counseling at federally funded clinics. Bush has vowed to veto the bill.

It is cruelly ironic that as the federal government mobilizes to promote truth in food labeling and advertising, in the name of the public's heath and welfare (see lead editorial), it is also poised to impose a gag order on information about abortion--an order deceitfully justified as supporting the same goal. Since 1977, the 4,000 federally funded family planning clinics that serve more than 4 million low-income women a year have been prohibited from performing abortions.

It's not enough to know your own medical history any more. Geneticists say people should be as well-versed in family medical history as they are in family fortunes and scandals. "A number of studies show people are often misinformed about their family history," says Patricia Kelly, a geneticist at Children's Hospital of San Francisco. "That's a reason why I get the records and spend a lot of time going over them."

In a case that is attracting widespread attention, an El Cajon woman has been charged with contributing to her infant son's death by ignoring her doctor's advice and taking illegal drugs during pregnancy.